


Not This Day

by Selkiessong



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Don't Like Don't Read, F/M, Revolution, The North remembers, not Dany friendly, not Jon friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 01:37:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12806754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selkiessong/pseuds/Selkiessong
Summary: "Be of good courage Master Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day, by God's grace, light such a fire in England as I trust shall never be put out.""History may not repeat itself but it rhymes."When the Dragon Queen burns the Lady of Winterfell and her sworn Knight, Westeros sees in her the Mad King come again. The Mother of Dragons may be the Unburnt but she can bleed. And if she can bleed she can die.





	Not This Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarlightAsteria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightAsteria/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Like the Songs](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12777333) by [StarlightAsteria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightAsteria/pseuds/StarlightAsteria). 



> Begins after the first chapter of StarlightAsteria's Like the Songs

   There is silence in the courtyard of Winterfell. The Dragon Queen has taken her children, her  _weapons_  , her consort and her court of turn-cloaks and oath-breakers and departed towards her jagged throne. And the North and West set the board for the greatest game.

 

_From the North the West learns the patience of a Winter that is always certain. From the West the North learns the cunning of waves, the deep currents beneath a calm surface to drown the unwary. In the courtyard of Winterfell and the in sea garden of Casterly Rock  a weirwood sends forth its first shoot._

 

   Addam Marbrand is a leader of men, keen eyed and commanding, and men would die before failing him in battle.  His cousin, Kevan Lannister, has been steward for his brother. Tywin, these many years and knows every trader in the West by land or sea. Quietly they carry his message to the fields of the Reach. 

   Melessa Tarly's husband and son have been taken from her; burnt alive on a second field of fire, and she holds no love for the Dragon-born. When Kevan Lannister's words reach her she summons her daughters. On their visits through their lands they pass a message along. 'Any extra food is to be sent North. When the Dragon comes let her find only empty fields.'

  Arya Stark paces and howls to the sky, letting the terror the the abandoned child that lives deep inside fuel her rage and vengeance.

 

   In the meanwhile a Kahlassi sits on her throne finds she cannot break the chains of fear that have started to bind her.

 

_And the weirwood trees in the North and West grow tall and strong._

 

   Samwell Tarly travels to his family in the Reach with his wife-for he is no Maester and the Watch is dissolved- they have pledged to each other beneath the sky in the sight of the Old and the New together. He begins to write the songs that all of Westeros soon sings, at their work, to their children, as they sit by the fire, songs of the Lady and her Knight who when all hope had faded taught their people how to die. Gilly walks with his mother and sisters for life has taught her harsh lessons and she shares her knowledge with the womenfolk who live in terror of the Dothraki raiders. 'Go away inside,' she tells them,'never give them your struggles or your screams'. And 'Your child is yours, not his, yours and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise'. 

   

And the women learn there is more than one way to resist.

 

_There are stories in the Reach, in the West wherever the Dothraki raid and the Dragon devours. The say that any man burned any woman raped has a Lady, tall and regal with hair like autumn and  eyes that have seen all the sorrow in the world,  at their side to give testament to their pain; and beside the Lady is a Knight, green eyed and strong with his hair a crown of gold, and in his hand a sword of light._

 

   The fragile unity that is Westeros cannot last long for the Stormborn is now driven by her paranoia her fears that people mean to kill her and take what is her birthright as they did to her father, and neither her consort, nor her knight, nor her Hand can quiet her rage. 

 

_For the first time in legend or history the weirwood sprouts leaves that are golden mixed with the crimson._

 

It begins in the Reach. The Dragon unleashes her raiders like a hurricane wind. But the Reach is well prepared with pitch gifted them by the North, and the field of battle is black. When the Dragons breath fire the horses panic and it is almost easy for Addam Marbrand's Northron archers to sow havoc, to shoot out the dragons eyes, for his Westermen to cut down the fleeing, unhorsed survivors. The final Field of Fire will go to the Westerosi. And the Face-Changer beloved of Death begins to make her way South. Even dragons die.

 

_In the ashes of the field yet another weirwood sprouts._

   Arya Stark, envoy of the North, arrives in the once crowed city of Kings Landing with her List.  The Knight, the Hand and the Queen. She and the young bear have argued furiously over the list, before deciding. Jorah Mormont should have died years ago and is long overdue to meet with Death. Tyrion is not a man that can ever be trusted, and he too is late to meet his end. The Dragon is not a question. For her sister, for the knight, indeed for all the kingdom justice decrees her death.  They will not give her false kinsman his death just yet. There must always be a Stark at Winterfell and he may have his choice of any woman willing to bear the next Stark.

 

_The weirwood leaves are silent despite the wind._

 

   First is the Knight. The one who passes the sentence must swing the sword and he was once a man of the North. She gives him his death quickly and cleanly. Next is the Hand. He looks into her eyes of cold steel and whimpers that he did not want this, that he did not mean for this to happen. She is unmoved and takes his face. Finally there is the Queen.  Dressed in Tyrion's face, and it is cold and slimy on her own, she offers wine laced with enough poison to kill five grown men to the Queen and sits and drinks with her for she will not touch untasted wine. Arya sips slowly to make sure the Queen will not escape her fate. When she sees begin to cough she pulls her own face on-to smile at her enemy's death.

 

_Arya hears her sister humming an old lullaby from their childhood when the worst that would happen would be to come in from play. Behind her eyes Sansa smiles and Jaime raises his sword to her-one Kingslayer to another and she is home._

 

   With the Queen's death and her consort's exile long held plans fall into place. A Hightower, descended from the old Gardener Kings, who died rather than bend the knee is crowned king of the Five Kingdoms of Westeros, with the North and Dorne allied in perpetual friendship. 

 

_And the weirwoods flourish with their leaves of gold and crimson._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?  
> Happy Thanksgiving!


End file.
